Serial numbers - United Musical Instruments U.S.A., Inc. Conn Woodwind instruments. Serial Number: Year Manufactured: 1: 1895: 2000: 1896: 2500: 1897: 3000: 1898. The remaining numbers are a monthly serial number. For example, my C clarinet was made by Conn and has serial number C95887L. 'C' indicates it's a C clarinet (I think), '95887' means it was manufactured sometime around 1922, and 'L' means it was built to a'=440. Subject: CONN Serial Numbers. For those of you who did not get an earlier (June 1994) message, I have copied a list of CONN serial numbers and approximate dates of manufacture. To my knowledge, for 1940 vintage CONN horns you will find the serial number on the thumb valve casing, not under the valve levers as on more recent horns from CONN.
A few weeks ago, someone in this newsgroup was asking how to interpretConn serial numbers. I had saved the following items from the horn
discusssion list a few months ago and am posting them now. They seem to
tell everything you need to know.
Peter Macdonald
-------
From Con...@aol.com Thu Jun 15 07:56:01 1995
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 94 17:13:21 EDT
From: Con...@aol.com
To: ho...@merlin.nlu.edu
Subject: Re: Conn 8D Vintage
Rick Lehner wrote, in regards to his 8D:
'It definitely does not have any letters in the serial number....Anyone know
approximately how old and where it was made?'
I was trying to help a friend of mine figure out a serial number on his 8D,
too. His doesn't have the letters in front either, & I know it is an older
horn. Mine is a '79. The repairman who works on my middle school
instruments told me how to find out what MY serial number meant, so I'll
relate that. Here goes (by the way, this is a fabricated number as an
example, so if it's your horn, it's only a coincidence!):
GE920072
First letter at front = the decade (G is the 1970s)
Second letter at front = the month (E is May--5th letter, 5th month)
First single digit = year (9 is 1979)
Next single digit = 'French horn group'
Last four digits = the number of the horn that was built that month (0072
would be the 72nd horn built)
Hope this helps somewhat, and if you want me to ask the repairman about the
older numbers, let me know!
Constance Sanders
Bellevue, KY USA
con...@aol.com
From PPe...@UH.EDU Thu Jun 15 07:56:24 1995
Date: 5 Oct 1994 09:35:13 -0600
From: 'PEASE, Paul' <PPe...@UH.EDU>
To: IHS DISCUSSION GROUP <HO...@MERLIN.NLU.EDU>
Subject: CONN Serial Numbers
For those of you who did not get an earlier (June 1994) message, I have
copied a list of CONN serial numbers and approximate dates of manufacture.
To my knowledge, for 1940 vintage CONN horns you will find the serial number
on the thumb valve casing, not under the valve levers as on more recent horns
from CONN.
Here's the list.
CONN SERIAL NUMBERS
A GUIDE FOR DETERMINING THE APPROXIMATE AGE OF
CONN BRASS INSTRUMENTS
SERIAL DATE SERIAL DATE
NUMBER NUMBER
1 1876 142575 1916
700 1877 146600 1917
1700 1878 155000 1918
3000 1879 165900 1919
5000 1880 169500 1920
6000 1881 175500 1921
7000 1882 190450 1922
8000 1883 198475 1923
9000 1884 206700 1924
10500 1885 219850 1925
12000 1886 230900 1926
13000 1887 239500 1927
14000 1888 252900 1928
16500 1889 263200 1929
18000 1890 273700 1930
20000 1891 280130 1931
22500 1892 281360 1932
25000 1893 289743 1933
27500 1894 294687 1934
29000 1895 399690 1935
34000 1896 307996 1936
40000 1897 315575 1937
46700 1898 322650 1938
52000 1899 324859 1939
58000 1900 327850 1940
66700 1901 338500 1941
71000 1902 348150 1942
76000 1903 354600 1943
82000 1904 355500 1944
88000 1905 355750 1945
94000 1906 355850 1946
100000 1907 366650 1947
106000 1908 376100 1948
111000 1909 383650 1949
116000 1910 389600 1950
121000 1911 396300 1951
126000 1912 393301 1952
130150 1913 420057 1953
132400 1914 427301 1954
137000 1915 500001 1955
571850 1956
Serial numbers for reed instruments differed from the brass prior to 1957.
Brass and Reed Instruments as of 1957
652002 1957 949465 1962
718696 1958 C00501 1963
779657 1959 C73854 1964
834200 1960 E54106 1965
898556 1961 R31247 1966
Conn Trombone Serial Number Chart
No information available 1967 to March 1974.
After March 1974, use the code system below.
CODE SYSTEM
First character (letter) indicates decade, 'G' for 1970's, 'H' for 1980's.
etc.
Second character (letter) indicates month of year, 'A' for January, 'B' for
February, etc.
Third character (number) indicates year of decade reading directly.
Fourth character (number) indicates instrument group as follows:
1- Cornet
2-Trumpet
3-Alto
4-French Horn
5-Mellophone
6-Valve Trombone
7-Slide Trombone
8-Baritone-Euphonium
9-Tuba
0-Sousaphone
The remaining four numbers constitute the serial number on a monthly basis.
Source: Allied Supply Corporation, Catalog No. 9-85. PO Box 288, Elkhorn,
WI 53121
From dcr...@willamette.edu Thu Jun 15 07:56:49 1995
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 13:51:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: 'David S. Crane' <dcr...@willamette.edu>
To: International Horn Society EDG <HO...@MERLIN.NLU.EDU>
Subject: Re 8 D's
Re Rick Lehner trying to find out the age of his 8 D. The Elkhart ones
had Elkhart, Ind. under C.G. Conn Ltd. on the bell, and the non lettered
ones have a fancier treatment on the end of the slide receivers. I
believe the lettered Elkkhart horns and the Texas horns slide receiver
ends are rolled, and the older ones are soldered on and are sort of like
a double ring. Hope this helps.
David Crane
Horn instructor
Willamette University
Salem, OR
97302
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.french-horn
Subject: Conn Serial Numbers
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Keywords:
Cc:
A few weeks ago, someone was asking for information on Conn serial
numbers. This topic was considered by the horn discussion group last
October; I have saved the relevant postings and can forward them to anyone
who wants to see them. The information should give the date and factory
for any Conn.
Conn Pan American
This is from David Mack Endres, dmendres@slb.com:
Conn Clarinet Serial Numbers
My curiosity piqued again by the recent post by Mark Charette, which contained information contradicting what I had been told about the line of Pan American clarinets, I decided to do some digging. I called UMI (Conn) in Elkhart, and the person in customer service told me they had NO SERIAL NUMBER lists for Pan Americans. The Conn serial numbers on woodwind.org are not relevant to Pan American clarinets, so it is not vintage 1926. I was referred to the Shrine to Music Museum (anyone heard of this museum? Their phone number is 605-677-5306).I contacted the museum, and was told the following: The instruments in question are actually 'Violin Finish' clarinets manufactured for the Conn Pan American student line. Production started soon after WWII as Conn got it's instrument lines running. They were manufactured from 1947 until 1949 or 1950. Records were destroyed so no serial number information is available. They are indeed a wood laminate. They would have probably been successful but a bad batch of wood was used and they got a reputation for cracking. As a consequence of this bad reputation the line eventually died. I find this striking because I had been informed by a instrument salesman familiar with the line that they had been guaranteed never to crack!
In summary, these 'rosewood' look Pan American clarinets were a brief post war experiment in producing wood laminate clarinets with the durability of plastic (resonite) and an attractive finish. The experiment failed failed, possibly without good reason. I have heard various claims about their desirability as collector items, but the Museum could shed no light on this point.
Conn Saxophone Serial Number Chart
Personally, I like mine, but not as well as my pre-R13 Buffet. The keywork and intonation are decidedly inferior. The tone is almost as good as the Buffet, though - without entering into mysticism, and without a spectrum analyzer I can say no more about the sound quality. I use it as a spare and when camping. And, I suppose one could claim I'm 'collecting' it.